GILL, Stephen. Coexistence. [Dudelange / London]: Centre National de l'Audiovisuel / Nobody, (2012). PRINT EDITION

GILL, Stephen.
Coexistence.
[Dudelange / London]: Centre National de l'Audiovisuel / Nobody, (2012).

4to (280 × 215 mm), pp.151 (including two gatefolds), [1]. 90 colour photographs, texts by Gill and Jean Back, design by Melanie Mues. Plain endpapers. Edges of text block flecked with black ink by hand. Quarter black morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, spine and upper side lettered in gilt. Signed and designated AP 4/5 in pencil on half-title. With a signed and numbered pigment print. Housed in the publisher's black cloth-covered board solander box, spine and upper side lettered in gilt. Fine.

First edition, one of 5 artist's proofs, the edition was 100 signed and numbered copies issued with a print. Coexistence originated from a commission by the Centre national de l'audiovisuel, who invited Gill to make a body of work in response to an area of industrial wasteland that had previously been used by the now defunct steelmaking industry in Dudelange, Luxembourg. Gill chose to focus on a pond which had previously cooled the blast furnaces, reigniting his childhood fascination with bedroom biology, pond life, and in turn to the idea of microscopic worlds within worlds.

'The more I thought about the human factor that was so essential to the series forming in my head, the more I wanted to involve local people from the small town of Dudelange, which has a substantial community of families with Portuguese and Italian origins. Many of these people used to work in the steelmaking industry. For health and safety reasons it was not possible to invite people to come to the cooling ponds, so I decided instead to take the pond to the people. I filled a red plastic mop bucket with water from the pond, and dipped my underwater camera into this pond water prior to making portraits of the Dudelange residents. Later on I also dipped the prints into the pond itself, so microscopic life was also transferred onto the surface of the paper.'

Parr, M. and Badger, G., The Photobook: A History vol.III 182.

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